Since Texas Governor Greg Abbott started busing migrants to NYC, Mayor Eric Adams and the Department of Homeland Security have been faced with a big problem. What to do with all these people?
Greg Abbott says that Biden’s border policies are irresponsible and he’s sending the problem to NYC, where he feels “liberals” are ready to deal with the issues… or should be. The Arizona governor feels the same way.
And so, busloads of migrants, people let in at the southern border, are arriving at Port Authority Bus Terminal in midtown Manhattan.
A plan is in the works to convert Row NYC, a hotel in the middle of Times Square, into a migrant intake center and shelter for up to 600 migrant families, a challenge in a city that already has a massive homeless crisis.
Row NYC, at 700 Eighth Avenue, is a 28-story building located about three blocks north of the Port Authority Bus Terminal.
Mayor Adams’ office hasn’t said yet what the plan will cost, who is managing it, and other specifics. It’s a work in progress that was born out of an emergency.
“The population served by the selected vendor will be families with children, adult couples and individual adults,” said the DHS’ request to the hotel, describing the people that will be occupying the luxurious shelter.
Migrants come in through the southern border, and are detained by Border Patrol agents, who are overwhelmed, but are released into the United States in order to seek asylum in the courts, which they have the right to do, by US law. They may enter at border crossings or illegally. Texas and Arizona have been receiving most of the migrants, and thus, most of the burden.
Mayor Adams said last month that the NYC shelter system was overwhelmed due to the migrants sent by the governors of Texas and Arizona.
Many of the migrants don’t have family in NYC and have nowhere else to go.
The hotel, The Row, used to be called Milford Plaza. Its commercials were famous during the 1980’s. People who actual watch commercials may remember actors dressed as hotel workers singing to the tune of “Lullaby of Broadway.”
The hotel used to cost $43-a-night per person, in the 1980s. That included breakfast and dinner and a cocktail. They advertised themselves as the “LullaBUY of Broadway,” because it was really a good buy.
The hotel now costs $400/night, forget about dinner and you’re lucky if you get fresh coffee.
After the hotel was sold in 2010 and opened in 2014, it became renamed Row NYC. During the COVID-19 pandemic it was used to house homeless people. The hotel needed the business and the city needed housing.
Guests at the hotel responded with mixed emotions. Some said they would not stay in a hotel that housed migrants. Others said they were glad that the city was helping the unfortunate asylum seekers.
